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Bangkok Post
Bangkok Post
National

New deaths follow weekend murder spree

Police examine the car containing a murdered man found parked inside a temple in Ban Takhun district, Surat Thani, on Sunday night. The victim was a son of the prime suspect, a policeman, in an armed attack on a house in Khirirat Nikhom district on Saturday that left four people dead. (Photo: Supapong Chaolan)

Two more people have been found dead following an armed rampage at a house in Surat Thani on Saturday when four people were killed. The deaths are all related, police said.

The most recent deaths were the wife of a prime suspect in Saturday's murders, and his son by a former wife.

On Saturday, the four attackers arrived in a car at a house.

Security camera footage showed three of them got out of the car, stormed into the house and began shooting.

The three gunman were alleged to be Pol Snr Sgt Maj Atthaporn Wichian, 46, of Khirirat Nikhom police station, his elder brother Thammarat Wichian, 48, and Manop Wang-ngan, 57.

The sound of multiple gunshots was heard.

Four people were killed. They included Thammarong Nilniyom, 60, the owner of the house; his wife Nilthip Palakachen, 49; and Pornsak Phetchu, 56, a former village chief. The fourth was Thammarat, one of the attackers, who was believed shot by one of the victims.

The two surviving gunmen fled in the waiting car.

On Sunday night, Atthapol Wichian, 25, son of alleged shooter Pol Snr Sgt Maj Atthaporn, was found dead in a car parked inside a temple.

Atthapol was dead in the front pasenger seat. He was shot in the head. The body was covered with a cloth and the hands were tied together. He was believed to have been killed about three hours earlier, police said.

Atthapol was Pol Snr Sgt Maj Atthaporn's son by a former wife.

And then on Monday, a woman was found dead in a room at Leelawadee Resort.

The woman was identified as Panida Nilniyom, 34, the only daughter of Thammarong, who was killed in the Saturday attack. Panida was the wife of Pol Snr Sgt Maj Atthaporn. The cause of her death was not reported.

Atthaporn was still at large on Monday.

Police confirmed Atthaporn was Thammarong's son-in-law. He divorced his former wife in October 2022 and married Panida.

Thammarong reportedly disliked Atthaporn and wanted to break up their marriage, putting the two men in conflict. This was believed to be the motive for Saturday's attack.

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